Juice-Dvd

Spike Lee's longtime cinematographer, Ernest R. Dickerson, made his directorial debut with this violent story about four Harlem teens whose lives are changed when a store robbery goes wrong. The film has been likened to an urban The Wild Bunch, but it is far too artificial for that. With Dickerson's eye, Juice understandably looks great, but at the end of the day it is only a slightly better version of the heavily clichéd crime movies that have artificially dominated perceptions of black cinema in the U.S. in the '90s. Rap fans might enjoy seeing some familiar stars on board, including Queen Latifah and Tupac Shakur. --Tom Keogh